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Prospective Associations Between Early Childhood Intimate Partner Violence Exposure and Middle Childhood

Amy Hyoeun Lee1, Rebecca Mirhashem1, Kristin Bernard1

  • 112301Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA.

Child Maltreatment
|May 9, 2022
PubMed

Insights

Early childhood intimate partner violence (IPV) exposure, even when considering deprivation, predicts later internalizing and externalizing symptoms in children involved with child protective services (CPS). This highlights the need for targeted interventions.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Childhood Adversity Research
  • Clinical Psychology

Background:

  • Children involved with child protective services (CPS) frequently experience multiple adversities, including intimate partner violence (IPV).
  • While childhood IPV exposure is linked to later psychopathology, research using a dimensional approach and accounting for co-occurring adversities is less common.
  • Understanding the prospective associations between early IPV exposure and developmental psychopathology is crucial for this vulnerable population.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine the prospective associations between early childhood IPV exposure (threat), co-occurring deprivation, and middle childhood internalizing and externalizing symptoms.
  • To investigate the unique contribution of IPV exposure to psychopathology beyond shared environmental risks in CPS-involved children.
  • To inform screening and intervention strategies for children exposed to IPV.

Main Methods:

  • Secondary analysis of data from a randomized controlled trial involving CPS-involved children (N=249).
  • Adversity variables (IPV threat, deprivation) assessed from infancy to 48 months.
  • Internalizing and externalizing symptoms modeled as latent variables using data from ages 8 to 10 via structural equation modeling.

Main Results:

  • IPV exposure was significantly associated with increased middle childhood internalizing symptoms (β = .38, p = .001).
  • IPV exposure was also significantly associated with increased middle childhood externalizing symptoms (β = .26, p = .019), even after controlling for deprivation.
  • These findings underscore the independent impact of IPV threat on child psychopathology.

Conclusions:

  • Early childhood IPV exposure is a significant predictor of both internalizing and externalizing psychopathology in middle childhood.
  • The findings support the importance of addressing IPV exposure in interventions for CPS-involved children.
  • Screening for IPV exposure is recommended to mitigate long-term developmental sequelae.

Keywords:
child protective servicesearly childhoodexternalizinginternalizingintimate partner violence

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